European officials agreed Friday to grant more U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence agencies easier access to detailed personal data on all trans-Atlantic air passengers, despite concerns over individual privacy and fears that the information could be misused.
The new agreement between the United States and the European Union provides for passengers’ names, credit card numbers and other personal information to be passed to the Department of Homeland Security. The CIA and other intelligence agencies will not automatically receive the details on every passenger but can obtain information on a case-by-case basis, officials said.
Under a previous agreement, the information was provided only to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of Homeland Security.
The European Union, which has some of the most stringent privacy protections in the world, has been critical of what it perceives as U.S. efforts to usurp the privacy of personal data, banking records and other information as part of its effort to identify potential terrorists.
Although the European Commission approved an agreement with the United States on the transfer of passenger data in 2004, the European Parliament –the EU’s elected lawmaking body — opposed it and challenged the deal in court.
French Justice Minister Pierre Sellal said Friday that the new arrangement, reached after a nine-hour trans-Atlantic video conference, “permits the United States to protect against terrorist attack but at the same time safeguards the essential liberties of passengers.”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff offered a similar view, saying in a statement that it “promotes our joint goal of combating terrorism while respecting our joint commitment to fundamental rights and freedoms, notably privacy.”
In May, Europe’s highest court overturned the 2004 arrangement, saying it had been improperly drafted. As a result, airlines have been operating in a legal limbo since then, subject to possible lawsuits from passengers alleging privacy violations and facing potential fines or landing rights refusals from the United States for failure to provide the data.
“This is an important agreement that will ensure normal operations for the 105,000 passengers who fly between these two jurisdictions each day,” Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said in a statement.
But some European officials remain skeptical of the agreement, which requires airlines to provide the data to the U.S. government within 15 minutes of takeoff for the United States.
“The EU has once again caved in to U.S. pressure at the expense of EU citizens’ civil liberties,” Cem Oezdemir, a German member of the European Parliament, said in a statement released in Brussels. He said the new accord “allows the continued plundering of EU passengers’ personal information.”
U.S. officials say they need passengers’ personal information to identify potential terrorists. The new agreement does not change the type of information to be provided on each passenger. It will include name, address, credit card information, frequent-flier number, telephone and e-mail contacts, and the person’s “no show” history.
EU officials said the deal does not require airlines to provide some data that could be used to identify racial origin, political opinions or health and sex life. For example, airlines would not be ordered to give U.S. authorities details of meal orders, which could indicate religious or ethnic background.
